- Design Miami / Basel 2010 (c) photo by Premier Art Scene
One day ahead of Art Basel opened its design sister fair 'Design Miami / Basel' the preview-doors. It is the 5th edition of this prestigious fair for limited edition design art objects here in Basel. Director Ambra Medda invited 32 International cutting edge design galleries to Switzerland.
When I walked across the fair, it became again more and more evident to me that the formerly two fields of visual arts and design merge into each other.
There are many visual artists, who start to do design objects: Conceptual artist Jonathan Monk created coffee tables in an ironic Judd-style for D & A Lab Bruxelles, Belgium.
- Jonathan Monk: 'Low Table 1984, 2010'; powder-coated and galvanized steel; 150 x 45 x 100 cm; courtesy of D & A Lab, Bruxelles; (c) by the artists; photo by Premier Art Scene
And there are designers, who move towards installation art:
London based Carpenters Workshop Gallery offered a wonderful installation by Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny: 'The Unbearable Lightness' depicted a human figure in a glass cube. Inside of the glass cube were real honeybees, which covered the figure with their natural wax.
- Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny: 'The Unbearable Lightness', 2010; aluminum, glass, natural beeswax; 250 x 125 x 48 cm; Ed. 6 + 2 AP; courtesy Carpenters Workshop Gallery; € 65.000 + VAT (c) by the artist; photo by Premier Art Scene
The Slovakian-born, now Rotterdam-based, head of Studio Libertiny did really a great piece!
It clearly references to early installation 'A Thousend Years' of 1990 by Damien Hirst. It is more an installation art object, rather than a traditional 'design' object.
- Detail of Tomas Gabzdil Libertiny: 'The Unbearable Lightness', 2010; aluminum, glass, naural beeswax; 250 x 125 x 48 cm; Ed. 6 + 2 AP; courtesy Carpenters Workshop Gallery; € 65.000 + VAT (c) by the artist; photo by Premier Art Scene
Galerie Kreo from Paris, France, offered a nice chair by the Brazilian star designers Fernando & Humberto Campana. They created a playful chair with pet lion dolls.
- Chair made of lion pet dolls by Fernando & Humberto Campana; (c) by the artists courtesy by Galerie Kreo; photo by Premier Art Scene
Cologne based Gabrielle Ammann Gallery offered provocative light objects by Tom Sachs. One of these light objects - formerly known as lamps - depicted a floating skull. The artist cut the skull’s top open and filled it with colorful pharmaceutical pills.
Yes, I know, there are too many Damien Hirst references in it, which nobody wants to see anymore. However, thinking about my friends on Prozac and the like, I often have the feeling we humans are really made up from pharmaceutical chemicals only.
- Light object by Tom Sachs; courtesy gabrielle Ammann Gallery, Cologne (c) by the artist; photo by Premier Art Scene
I like about the Design Miami fairs that they have an artistic approach towards design and they save my time by leaving out all the antiquity dealers.
by U.G.
Design Miami / Basel in Basel, Switzerland, 14th - 19th June 2010
- Marc Newson presented by Parr Studios (c) photo by Premier Art Scene
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